1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of caddies, holders, area dividers, stands, and package holding structures. More particularly, the present invention relates to a support structure, or "caddy", which is particularly adapted to support filled plastic grocery bags in an upright position on a floor so that the contents of the limp plastic bags do not spill therefrom. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to such a caddy which is supportable upon a floor or other generally flat support surface, and which in part suspends the supported plastic grocery bags so that a portion of the weight of the groceries is supported on the floor, and the remaining grocery weight transfers to the caddy to stabilize the latter and the grocery bags. The caddy is particularly configured to have a high utility for use in the trunk of a car, for example, to support filled grocery bags during transportation from a store to the consumer's home. An embodiment of the caddy is configured to knock down to two flat panels for convenient storage, and one particularly preferred embodiment uses two identical cooperative and reversible panels to form the caddy.
2. Related Technology
As is well known, grocers are increasingly turning to the use of thin-film plastic grocery bags because of the cost and environmental advantages of these bags over the conventional paper bags. The plastic grocery bags have a number of environmental advantages including the saving of forest land, reduced volume and weight, reduced shipping costs, and reduced shipping fuel uses compared to paper grocery bags. However, consumer acceptance of these limp thin-film plastic grocery bags has not been completely favorable. Many consumers are very irritated upon arriving home to find their groceries have spilled from the limp plastic bags. For this reason, some consumers have continued to insist on the use of paper grocery bags, and grocers have been forced to continue to make these more expensive and more environmentally costly paper bags available, rather than to risk losing customers in a very competitive market.
A conventional collapsible package holding structure, or area divider, is known in accord with U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,656, issued Oct. 19, 1976 to D. November. This area divider is believed to include a hinged rectangular frame into which is received a pair of interconnected V-shaped foldable dividers, which cooperatively divide the area within the frame into compartments. These compartments may receive filled paper grocery bags to assist in supporting the bags in an upright position on the floor of an automobile trunk, for example. Both the hinged frame and the foldable dividers may be folded flat for storage of the area divider.
However, with an area divider as taught by the patent to November, the currently popular plastic grocery bags would not be supported so that the contents of filled bags could still escape from the bags during transportation.
Another conventional automotive accessory is known in accord with U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,584, issued Jan. 12, 1988, to J. T. Schoeny. This accessory includes a base, a back flap hinged to the base, and at least a pair of side flaps hinged to the back flap. The back flap may be pivoted to a vertical position, and the side flaps be pivoted also to vertical positions essentially perpendicular to the back flap in order to divide the area within an automobile trunk or station wagon into open-topped enclosures, which are intended to confine small articles during movement of the automobile.
The accessory taught by the Schoeny patent suffers from the same drawback as the November patent with respect to transportation of filled plastic grocery bags. In other words, the limp plastic grocery bags can still allow their contents to escape even when confined in enclosures or compartments like those taught by November or Schoeny.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,825, issued Sep. 24, 1991, to D. Bratset, is believed to teach a conventional support for plastic grocery bags. The support taught by the Bratset patent appears to include a plate-like base member which may rest upon a floor. The base member includes plural pairs of V-shaped receptacles, or slots, into which depending tabs may be inserted. The depending tabs are formed in pairs along the lower edge of a foldable upright member. The paired tabs are disposed on opposite sides of a fold line of the upright member so that when the tabs are received into the slots of the base, the upright member forms a zig-zag configuration. At its upper edge, the upright member forms plural protrusions intended to receive the integral handles of filled plastic grocery bags. Accordingly, the filled bags may be supported for transportation. When the base and upright member are separated, the upright member may be accordion folded to a small size for storage.
With a support structure like that taught by the Bratset patent, the user must engage plural tabs into plural slots in order to prepare the structure for use. This requirement significantly reduces the convenience of use of the support structure. Also, adjacent filled grocery bags hang against one another. There is only the single upright member which may serve as a partition between bags containing breakable glass containers, for example. During transportation, such containers may knock against one another resulting in breakage of one or more of the containers. Also, the grocery bags containing crushable or fragile articles can not conveniently be separated from the bags with heavy articles, so that the fragile or crushable article may also be damaged as the consumer transports them home.
Finally, a rotary device for use at the checkout counter of retail stores is known in accord with U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,499, issued Jul. 21, 1992, to B. Hoar. The Hoar device includes a round turntable upon which plural upright panels cooperate to divide the turntable into sectors. Within the sectors the panels carry hooks upon which a supply of plastic grocery bags may be stored. The hooks are arranged in pairs on confronting panel faces so that a single plastic grocery bag may be opened within each sector of the turntable in preparation for filling of the bags with groceries.
The device taught by the Hoar patent is secured to the checkout stand at a store, is adjustable to match its height to the top surface of the checkout counter, and is not intended to be portable. Moreover, this device would not be convenient for transportation of grocery bags because it does not knock down or disassemble to a convenient size for storage.
In view of the deficiencies of the conventional devices and structures outlined above, there exists a need for a convenient, low-cost caddy for use in an automobile to support filled plastic grocery bags during transportation. The device should knock down to a convenient size to storage, and should provide a way of partitioning breakable, heavy, crushable, and fragile articles from one another. Also, the device should be easy and convenient both to prepare for use, and to knock down to storage after use.